IoT is Adding Intelligence to Industrial Automation

The Internet of Things (IoT) is helping companies develop new services, enhance productivity and efficiency, and solve critical problems. This is especially true for industrial automation, where Internet-enabled machines are manufacturing better quality, and more customized products faster.

IoT is enabling machines and automation systems to securely connect to each other, to the enterprise, and to the rest of the supply chain. So much more data is now available from the process, machinery, and the product to analyze and make actionable decisions. Companies can be more flexible and responsive. Product quality and yields will improve while operational costs can be brought under control. Most importantly, the ever-increasing demands of markets and customers can be met, safely and securely.

After machines and automation systems are connected, we can extract all types of environmental and machine vision data; temperature, humidity, and accelerometer data; and so much more. This helps us increase the intelligence of industrial automation and improve:

Predictive maintenance: Intelligent devices and systems built on Intel technology or our intelligent gateway solutions enable us to extract all of this data and transmit it to a data center. Intelligent analytics then help us better and more cost effectively maintain expensive machinery as well as make sure that maintenance doesn’t interrupt production.

Remote management: Companies can securely provision, maintain, and upgrade automation devices remotely. If faults occur, then they can be diagnosed—and in most cases remediated— remotely, which reduces operation costs.

Product quality: Access to more data from products being manufactured and using statistical process control to continually improved product quality.

By adding intelligence to the factory floor, IT, and the rest of the enterprise, we’re able to use the IoT technologies to operate more efficiently and create a better final product that customers demand.

Global Head of Energy & Industrial Segments, Intelligent Systems Group INTEL CORPORATION Mehraban currently leads a team of marketing engineers and platform architects to drive solution-centric product innovation in Intel’s embedded energy and industrial businesses. In this role he is responsible for setting research directions, conducting comparative qualitative and quantitative research globally, leading new product and solution strategy and definition for Intel in the power and automation industries. Prior to joining Intel in 2000, he held a number of technical marketing and business development roles at Trillium, Glenayre, Nokia and Motorola. Mehraban received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from University of British Columbia in 1992 and Master’s degree in Business Administration from University of Victoria in 1995. He is a self-proclaimed tech enthusiast and early adopter of all types of consumer electronics. He likes to run and watch European soccer on the weekends. Continue the conversation on Twitter, @Intel_Shahram